japan running news

In his first race of the season 93-year-old super veteran runner Hiroo Tanaka showed that he still has what it takes. Tanaka lined up in three events at the Prefectural Sports and Recreation Festival in Aomori. Tanaka trains four days a week most of the time, but this was his first race since November, 2023, an almost 8-month blank. "I'm not confident at all. Especially about the 400 m," he said pre-race. "I'll be trying to break 1:50." But once the starting gun fired, Tanaka's sheer momentum couldn't be stopped. "I just focused on getting to the finish line without worrying about time," he said afterward. "I got there just before I was about to collapse." Despite not thinking about the pace he was running, Tanaka easily cleared his 1:50 goal with a stellar 1:43.02. Other runners gathered round to congratulation the legend of masters athletics. "Thank God it's over, thank God we're done," he said. "400 m is...

  In the midst of a lot of talk about how to keep the aging population young, there are people with long lives who are showing extraordinary physical abilities. One of them is Hiroo Tanaka , 93, a multiple world champion in masters track and field. Tanaka began running when he was 60, before which he'd never competed in his adult life. "He's so fast he's world-class." "His running form is so beautiful. It's like he's flying." Tanaka trains at an indoor track in Aomori five days a week. Asked about him, that's the kind of thing the people there say. Tanaka holds multiple masters track and field world records, where age is divided into five-year groups. Last year at the World Masters Track and Field Championships in Poland he set a new world record of 38.79 for 200 m in the M90 class (men's 90-94 age group). People around the world were amazed at the time, which was almost unbelievable for a 92-year-old. After retiring from his job as an el...

Men's 90+ 100 m world record holder  Hiroo Tanaka  has become a household name in Aomori. On the Sept. 18 Respect for the Aged Day national holiday Tanaka, 92, planned to go for his own world record at a masters track and field meet held in Hirosaki, Aomori. 140 people took part in the Aomori Masters Track and Field Championships, but there was no question who drew the most attention.  Tanaka competed in the 400 m, and 2 hours later lined up again in the 100 m. He started well, but after losing momentum in the middle part of the race he finished in 18.17. Having been suffering from lower back problems recently, that time was almost a second off his best, but Tanaka still had enough in him to come back and run the 200 m afterward.  "My typical training isn't that hard, and I'm able to work out 5 days a week," he said. "Once I turn 95 I don't know if there'll be any other competitors or not. The number will be close to zero, so my chances will be very g...

At the Aomori Masters Track and Field Meet on the Sept. 19 public holiday in Hirosaki, Aomori, a group of local men in their 90s set new men's 90-94 pending world records of 1:33.52 for 4x100 m relay and 9:23.29 for the 4x400 m. Both marks bettered the world records the same group set last year and are expected to be ratified as official world records by World Masters Athletics. The meet took place in excellent conditions on a perfect day with partly sunny skies and no wind. The 4x100 m featured rookie  Nobuo Miura , 90, a professional Noh performer, on the third leg. With the fresh blood he brought to the team they sliced over 10 seconds off last year's world record . The crowd at the track included former students from Miura's days as a high school teacher, there to cheer him on in his debut with the team. "I was a bit nervous," he said, "but I just went out there and ran my own race." The 4x400 m featured the same lineup as last year, Matashiro Surug...

At a track and field meet over the weekend, a relay team made up of four men in their 90s living in Aomori prefecture set new 90+ age group world records for the 4x100 m and 4x400 m. Meet organizers are applying to have both records officially ratified. 130 people from age 23 to 92 took part in the Aomori Masters Track and Field Championships on Aug. 29 in Hirosaki, Aomori. Among them were the relay team made up of Aomori natives Matashiro Suruga , 92, Yuzo Kudo , 92, Kozo Mitsuya , 90, and Hiro Tanaka , 90. Despite temperatures that rose to nearly 30˚C, the team members exhibited smooth baton work as they ran 1:43.69 in the 4x100 m. Their time took almost 40 seconds off the previous M90 record of 2:22.37. Just two and a half hours later the Aomori team took on the 4x400 m. In front of strong crowd support they clocked 9:56.36, bettering the previous record set by an American team in 2014 by around 2:45. In May this year the same Aomori team had run 8:49.01 , but because they were the ...

At Sunday's Aomori Masters Time Trials meet a Japanese men's team set a 4x400 m relay world record of 8:49.01 in the men's 90+ age category, taking nearly four minutes off the previous world record of 12:41.69 set in the United States in 2014.  Starting from a crouching start, leading runner Matashiro Suruga , 91, split roughly 2:07.5 before handing off to second runner Yuzo Kudo , 92. Kudo split 2:34.5, with third runner Kozo Mitsuya , 90, splitting 2:27.0 But anchor Hiro Tanaka , 90, delivered the biggest run of the day.  Out smooth and readily steadily, the stadium announcer predicted on the first curve that Tanaka would bring the team home under ten minutes. Hie was fast enough that less than 200 m later she revised that prediction to under nine minutes. Kicking in the last 100 m, Tanaka split an impressive 1:40 to bring the team home to the record. Without a doubt, it was the performance of the weekend worldwide. We have all the splits 200 by 200, @JRNHeadlines 2:07....